Breathe Again
by mauraisles89
Summary: First story. Alternative, fictional aftermath for S02E15, when Jane shoots Paddy in the warehouse. Will be multi-chapter. Story starts off angsty, with no history of Rizzles, but may go that way later on.


**Maura:**

Maura stood in the foyer of her Beacon Hill home. She had decided to leave Boston, quite possibly for good. Setting her two bags down at the door, she turned, feeling compelled to look back. It was mid-day on Thursday. Angela was at work, and did not even know that Maura was back in Boston from her mini-vacation to Rhode Island. She had left a note on the kitchen counter for Angela to receive when she returned to the house.

Maura breathed in, taking comfort in the neat home she was leaving behind. Everything was in its place, and Maura knew that Angela would keep it that way for whatever time she was away. She would call Angela once she'd arrived at her destination to ensure that the older Rizzoli woman knew that she was welcome to stay – that Maura wanted her to stay – in her absence.

Before the incident in the warehouse, Maura had been almost sure she would stay in Boston. It was the first place that she'd really felt she had a home, that she'd felt she had a family. She had briefly considered leaving when she'd discovered that she did have biological family in Boston – the city had seemed too small after learning of her true parentage. But her self-selected family had made that okay, and Boston had still felt like home, until Jane shot Paddy in the warehouse. After that, Maura's outside world had become a mess of news articles and press, and her internal life had become so confusing that for once, even her genius mind couldn't make sense of her feelings or her loyalties. She'd gone to her beach home in Rhode Island for what was meant to be a week to reflect and get away from it all, but she had returned early, having made her decision to leave Boston, and not wanting to waste time. The mess that her life had become was not going to clean itself up, and everything in her told her that it was time to start fresh.

A car horn from outside broke her reflection. Her car had arrived. Maura closed her eyes, committing the image of her home at this moment to her memory. Finally, she turned to the door and gathered her bags, breathing deeply as she took her first steps away from her life in Boston.

The driver loaded her bags into the trunk and opened the back door for her before getting into the car himself. 'Where to, Dr. Isles?'

'The airport, please.'

Maura took one more glance back at the place she'd called home for nearly five years, and was surprised to feel tears roll down both of her cheeks. She was accustomed to leaving her life behind, but she hadn't done it in a while, and hadn't expected to do it with this life, which had held more happiness than any, but that now held impossible pain. Directing her focus to her breathing, Maura thought ahead, allowing herself to be comforted by the idea of a new start, where nobody would know about Paddy Doyle, and where she hoped that she'd find distraction from her feelings about Jane and her actions in the warehouse.

 **Jane:**

'Ma, no. I don't want to come in.' Jane argued. She and Angela were sitting in Jane's police cruiser in Maura's driveway. Jane had been driving Angela to and from work while Maura was away.

'She's not even there, Janie. And even if she were, you two need to talk to each other. She's going to come back to work, and you're going to have to see her there. You're going to have to work together.'

'We'll cross that bridge when we come to it.' Jane muttered.

'Just come in the house for a minute. I have some lasagne in the freezer, you can take it for dinner.'

Jane unbuckled her seatbelt, too exhausted to argue. She had been stressed to the max for the past week and a half after what had happened in the warehouse. The internal affairs investigation had been long, difficult, and exhausting. It was over, but Jane still wasn't sleeping. She was sick over the strain that the past week's events had put between her and Maura. She wanted to fast-forward to when things would be okay again, but she knew that it wasn't that simple. She did think that Maura would eventually come around and that they would be okay again, but she knew it could be some time before the two of them were even on speaking terms again.

Jane followed Angela into the house. It was immaculate, as always. She waited just inside the door as Angela made her way into the kitchen to get the lasagne. Her hopes of getting out quickly were ended when she heard Angela's gasp. 'Jane…'

Jane looked up to see Angela standing in the kitchen, holding a piece of paper with one hand, the other hand over her mouth. Jane started to make her way into the kitchen. 'What, Ma?'

'She's gone, Janie.'

Jane was at Angela's side now, reaching for the paper in Angela's hand. Angela handed it to her, and she looked down to see Maura's handwriting:

 _Angela,_

 _With due consideration, I have concluded that the time has come for me to leave Boston. I've mailed in my resignation to the Commonwealth, and I expect that the news of my departure will be well known by Monday._

 _I don't know if I will be back, but I will check in from time to time. Please stay at the house, and treat it as your own. It would bring me great comfort to know that you have done this, and I do hope that you will. I will call in a few days, once I've settled in._

 _With love,_

 _Maura_


End file.
